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PLAIN TRUTHS POR THE PEOPLE. 



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SPEECH 



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SENATOR'A¥ADE, OF OHIO. 



Delivered in the Senate of the United States, Mareli 13 and 15, 1858. 



Mr President, I would gladly fore;»o the task 
that ia now before me, especially aa ihe whole 
subject has beeu debated by those much more 
able to enlijjhteu ihe Senate and the country 
upon it than I can claim to be. Indsed, rvfier 
the able report of my colleague on the Com 
mittee ou Territories, the Senator from Ver- 
mont, [Mr. CoLLAMER,] on all the points in- 
volved iu the coniroversy, which met with my 
entire approbation, backed by that masterly 
speech which he made on the case, it would be 
arrogant in me to suppose that I could add 
anything that would tend to enlighten either 
the Senate or the country on the subjects there- 
in discussed. I would not speak at all, sir, if 
I did not know that the people of the Srate 
which I in part represent are more deeply mov- 
ed with the consideration of this question than 
they ever have been before. They consider it 
a question of the first magnitude. They are 
alarmed at the b jldaess with which a Constitu- 
tion is urged upon a reluctant people against 
their will. They are alarmed at the progress of 
the principle of despotism which they think 
they perceive connected with the administra- 
tion of this Government. 

PROSCRIPTION. 

It is thought that we are very unreasonable 
because we take so much interest in the institu- 
tion cf Slavery. I have been here long enough 
to know that that great bsdy of Northern people 
who remain true to the traditions of their fathers, 
who act up to the spirit of those who inaugu- 
rated our institutions, are just as much pro- 
scribed from auy of tha beaefits, emoluments, 
or honors of this Government, aa if they were 
alien enemies. There are nearly thirteen hun- 
dred thousand voters belonging to the great 
Republican party of the North, who, jear after 
year, see the Government administered by bands 
that to them are alien, and they cannot partici- 
pate in it. Wh) ? Because, wh'sn a nomina- 
tion com«a before you, the question is asked, 
how stands this Northern mau upon the institu- 
tion of the South? Whatarehia views? Did he 



over, in an unguarded moment, give utterance 
to the impulses of the heart of evpry freeman ? 
Did his tongue ever pronounce tliat which the 
heart of ever? freeman feels? If he did, and 
any spy can fiah it up, and brin'::: it here, he is 
proscribed from any favors from the Govern- 
mrint under which ho lives, and which he snp- 
p./its. This should furnish a reason to you why 
alaaost everything political that is unpurchasa- 
ble in the market, that grounds ili'^lf upon prin- 
ciple, and cannot be swerved by those applian- 
ces, now ranks in the great Republican party 
of the North. If men are purchas.ib'.e, if Execu- 
tive favor can reach and sway them, if any of 
those appliances that are broughs to bear in 
political controversies can swerve them from 
tha truth, they have gone over to you ; they 
have repudiated the principles under which they 
were born; they hu,ve forgotten the sentiments 
that they imbibed even from their mothers' 
breasts. Such men have repudiated all this, 
and sworn fealty to an institution that they bate ; 
such are the men of the North who find favor 
in this Government ; the rest are aliens, pro- 
scribed by you. Yet, sir, because they are not 
perfectly patient under this state of things, they 
are said to be fanatical Abolitionists. I should 
like to know how long the patience of the South 
would hold out ? Let us reverse this nefarious 
judgm^-nt; let Northern majorities come here 
as inexorable as you ; let us inquire, is he a 
slaveholder that is prooosed for ctlice? does he 
train in their company ? and if he ever dropped 
a word that favored the institution of Slavery, 
let us pcoacribe him — would there be any shriek- 
ing ? would you bear it like lambs ? I do you 
the credit of saying that you would rise up un- 
der such prosciption as this, and show a spirit 
more worthy of the fathers than we do on this 
side. I know you would. If we should under- 
take to hold you to those same intolerant and 
proscriptive principles that you exercise to- 
wards U3, you would hear a nowl worse than 
Mr. Buchanan heard from the Scuth when 
Walker would not count fraudulent votes. 



"BUELL a BLA^NOfiAHD, Prmters, Washington, 



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_ ANTAGONISM. • 

Mr. President, I have stated some of the rea- 
sons why Northern men take a deep and abi- 
ding interest in the question of Slavery, because 
it tends to fasten its nefarious shackles upon 
them. We may just as well look it right straight 
in the face, for it never will be allayed with sen- 
timent; you may sing hoaannas to thij Union 
until you are hoarse ; you may talk of our com- 
mon blood and our compaon memories ; and 
you may eulogize that great flag under which 
our fathers fought ; and you may go into hys- 
terics on the subject; but I tell you that Govern- 
ments, in the long run, will be governed by 
their interests as they understand them, and by 
nothing else. These are all very pretty matters 
in their place, but the administrations of gov 
ernment are made of sterner stuff. They are 
never perpetuated by sentiments like these. I 
say to you, Mr. President, there is unfortunate- 
ly — and I regret it as much as any other man — 
a diversity between us in cur government that 
seems almost irreconcilable. I do not know 
but that means may be fjund by which thi* 
great gulf can be bridged over; but on the one 
hand you find the freest communities that the 
world ever saw, where real and unadulterated 
Democracy does not reign as a sentiment, but 
is lived out in practice by all the people ; where 
there is no aristocracy ; where there is no man 
ED high that he can claim a privilege beyond 
his most humble fellow citizen. This is the 
nature of the communities of the North, and of 
none more so than of that State which I have 
the honor in part to represent here. That is 
the freest of the free. It was there that the 
mind of that great patriot, Thomas JefFcirgou, 
fixed his eye the moment we had repelled the 
force of Great Britian. His philanthropic eye 
saw that great and beautiful wilderness Iving 
open, soon to be peopled by the citizens oi th;- 
United States. It was a leading object with 
him to carry into practice those beautiful theo- 
ries of equality which had charmed his great 
mind so long. He labored unceasingly until he 
had fixed out a document fully to carry out 
there his great idea that the people should rule 
the Governments of the earth. He found 
nothing in the way of his theory ; there was a 
blank sheet of paper. There was a Government 
to be laid, unstained by any of the crimes of 
ancient Rome. No institutions had grown up 
there, inconsistent with right ; and he fixed upon 
that soil to carry out the great theory of self- 
government for which the world had labored 
and sighed for so many generations; and there 
the work was completed. lu that region there 
is no aristocracy. In that glorious region there 
is no slave. Whoever comes there impressed 
with the image of God, is acknowledged to have 
an inalienable right to liberty that none but 
God can take away. 

This is the character of the communities 
composing more than one-half the States of 
this Union. How is it on the other side ? Why, 



sir, I understood the Ssn^tor from, Virginia, 
[Mr. Hunter] in the beautiful speech that he 
made yesterday, which would have challenged 
the admiration of every one, except for some 
sentiments that were scattered through it, to 
say — I have not had the benefit of seeing bis 
speech printed, but I think h^ said — that these 
ideas of political equality which were held up 
befjre our communities were Utopian and fan- 
ciful, and never could be realized. This proba- 
bly was not his language, but it was his senti- 
ment. Those principles of equality, asserted 
in the great charter of human liberty, the Dec- 
laration of Independence, ha believes to bs 
Utopian, incapable of practice ; mere abstrac- 
tions, not to be lived out. 

I wish Southern gentlemen were better ac- 
quainted than they seem to be with Northern 
iaatituticns. I tell the Senator from Virginia, 
ycu are wrong in believing this to be an ab- 
straction. It is, thank God, a truth, the reali- 
zation of which any man can witness who will 
cross over into my State. I have heard these 
sentiments uttered so often on the other side of 
the Chamber, that I have come to know that 
our viev/s of government are just as diverse as 
men's views possibly can be. There is, as I 
eaid before, an antagonism existing between 
us, which I know net how you are to cover up. 
The Deelarariop. of It dependence an abstrac- 
tion ! Are the great rights which it proclaim- 
ed, and which were the boast and gicry of our 
fa^hera " giittering generalities," having no prac- 
tical meaning? If so. I w:uld a?k any man, 
what did you sain by that boasted Revolution 
of yours ? Wherein does your Government 
differ from any despotism on the face of the 
earth ? Once break loose from the glorious 
doctrines of that great charter of liberty, and 
you are in the slough of despond ; you have 
nothing to distinguish you from the most hor- 
rible despotism that ever reigned over prostrate 
human nature. I ask again, why do you boast 
of what your fathers did, if they established a 
mere abstraction, or, as it is sometimes called, 
a '' glittering generality ? " The Senator from 
South Carolina, carrying out the game idea, 
said: 

"In all social syslems there must be a class to do the 
menial duties, to perforiu the drudsjery of life. Thai is, a 
class requiring but a low order of imellect, and but little 
skill. Its requisites are vigor, docihiy, fideiily. Such a 
class you must have, or you wo'ild not have that other 
class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement." 

Now, suppose you had not that class which 
leads progress, civilizition, and refinement: 
which class can you dispense with best? Of 
what use is your idle aristocracy? la God's 
name, have they not been the curse, the blight 
of every nation of the earth ? You cannot 
have this refined aristocracy, says the gentle-" 
man, unless yoa have a class to do your drudg- 
ery ; and that is the sentiment of the whole 
South. How diametrically opposed to it is the 
whole practical system of the North ! Is it 
reasonable, is it right, that " a class " shall do 



jonr drndpery— " ^ cIbps " that shall obey ? Sir, 
/ labor should never Ve done by a cla?a. If ycu 
obeyed the mandtta of the Almighty, and 
labor were diatribu/^d amon^ all the able-bod- 
ied men, it wouldZeaae to be a task ; it would 
become a mere anuseraen^, and it would tax 
no man's physiokl powers abovo what would 
consist with his lealtb and his welfare. It wa*- 
desifrned— for (/od is just— that this drnde'ery 
of which the S/>iatcr speaks should be diatrib- 
uted among aV the able-bodied men, bo as to 
make it light,^nd then it would not be inoon- 
sistent with we highest perfection of civiliza 
tion and retfr.ement; but, on the other hand, 
would lead directly to it. Labor done by a 
class I Tbat, sir, was the old curae of the Old 
World, i. class has been asfiipned to do the 
drudgery, to do all that h valuable, to prcducp 
everjthinij that is beneficial ; and the system 
leaves aristocratical drones, useles?, vicious 
idlers, whom any community can well dispense 
with. I Kay this class you can dispense with, 
to the advantP.ge of any community that I 
. know of; but the class who do your labor can 
1 not be dispensed with. The Senator says you 
must have a class to do your degraded labor. 1 
deny that labor is degraded; and here is the 
point of dilfnence between us, which I fear 
can nerer be overcome. That ia one grand 
rea3on why we resist your system coming into 
cur Territories; it is because you are deter- 
mined to contaminate all labor bv this degra 
ded class. Will the free, intelligent laborer 
place himself upon a level with your mere ab 
ject chattel, and toil there? Sir, he cannot do 
\ it, and ought not to do it, and will cot do it. 

i>— - THK WORKING CLASSICS. 

f " What, an idea ot labor I The Senator sup- 
poses that the laboring class want but very 
litt'e mind and very little skill. Sir, there is 
nothing on earth that puts the human intellect 
to all that it can attain, like the varied labor of 
man. What does jour drone, your refined 
aristocrat, do in his mind? What problems 
does he work out ? He consumes the products 
of labor; he ia idle, and ten to one he ia also 
vicious. He never invents. Go to your Pat- 
ent Office, and see what are the products of your 
degraded labor and your refined aristocrat. 
The latter never invents anything, unless it is 
a new way of stiifiiDg a chicken or mixing 
liquor. [Laughter.] He invents nothing 
beneficial to man. Degraded labcr, with a 
low intellect, is all you want 1 Sir, the ma- 
chinery brought into operation by intelligent 
labor is doing now more drudgery than all the 
slaves upon the face of the earth. The ele- 
ments are yoked to the machines of human 
usefulness, and there they are doing the work 
of bone and muscle, and ycur system cannot 
abide with it. The doom of Slavery would be 
fixed, if it was by nothing else than the pro- 
ducts of intelligent labor. You drudge along 
in the old way ; you invent no steam engine, 
because ycur labor ia degraded. You do not 



want skill ; yon want but very little mind ; and 
the Senator thinks the more ignorant the la- 
borers are the better, for, he says, they are so 
degraded that they have no ambition, and they 
never will endanger this refined class that eata 
up the proceeds of their labor I 

That is the idea of government that prevails 
nil through the slaveholding regions of the 
South. Again, the Senator says of the de- 
graded class that do the drudgery ; 

•'Ii coiiHiiltitra iliK very muil-HJII ol Nnoirly and ofpoliii- 
ciil 1,'ovtTiiinriii : niid you tnif>lii n* well uilrmpt (o build 
It lioiiHo ill ihe iiir, its lo huild cither llie oii« or ihij other, 
e.xci |)t on tliid inuil.mll." 

And then he goes on to say that we of the 
North have white slaves ; that we perform our 
labor by white slaves. This class must exist 
everywhere, and they must be a mndeill 
upon which you must erect civil societies and 
political organizations. How little that gentle- 
man understood of the spirit qf our Northern 
laborers I I would like to see him endeavoring 
to erect his political institutions upon their 
prostrate necks as mud-sills. I think it would 
be a little trouble?,ome. He might as well 
make his bed in hell, or erect his building over 
a volcano, as to undertake to build on his 
Northern " mud-sills." Then, with a simplicity 
that shows he knows nothing of Northern soci- 
ety, he says we have sent our missionaries down 
lo their very hearthstones, to endanger their 
system. I do not know how that is ; but he 
turns round and asks how we would like them 
to send their missionaries up to teach our la- 
borers their power. I was astonished at such 
an idea as that being prt^ented to political men 
of the North, who know and see and feel the 
power of the laboring class of men. We are 
all laboring men, and the politician can- 
not live, unless they breathe upon him ; he 
cannot move, unless he moves with their entire 
approbation. They are the scul, the strength, 
the body, the virtue, the mainstay, of all our 
society. Deprive our State of its laborers, and 
what would it be ? We have nothing else, and 
we have none of your refined society that is 
spoken of. We all labor, and are all disgraced, 
as the gentleman would call it, in our commu- 
nity. Labor with us is honorable ; idleness is 
disreputable. That is the state of things with 
us, and the laboring man knows full well, and 
needs no missionary to tell him, the potency of 
his vote. 

We should like to have your miEsionaries 
come up and endeavor to endanger our society 1 
Good heavens! One man has the same inter- 
est in upholding it as another. Suppose one 
man ia richer than another in Ohio. There ia 
no very great diversity, as a general thing ; but 
suppose he is ; take the child of the poorest 
man in our State, and has he any temptation to 
overthrow our Government ? No, sir. Full of 
life, full of hope, full of ambition to go beyond 
him who has gone furthest, he wishes to avail 
himself of the same securities which have min- 
istered to the upbuilding of others. He is a 



citizen, who holds all the rights of citizen- 
ship as dear as the most wealthy. His stake 
in society is the same ; his hope is the same ; 
his interest in good government is the same. 
He is none of your prostrate mudsills, deprived 
of those rights which God Almighty has given 
him, trampled under foot, and made to minis 
ter to the interests of another man. There is 
no such system as that with us. 

ALLIES OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS. 
But the Senator spoke about a degraded class 
in our great commercial cities. I have to con- 
fess that there ia some truth in that. We have a 
degraded class in the cities. They are the cff- 
Bcourings generally of the Old World— naen who 
come here reduced to beggary by their igno- 
rance ; reduced to beggary by their vice ; igno- 
rant, vicious, dangerous, I do not deny it. 
They are incident to all large cities ; but the 
Senator should' not complain of them. They 
are the chief corner-stone of your political 
etrength in the North. Find me the vicious 
ward of any city that does not uphold your sys- 
tem of Slavery, vote for its candidates, support 
its measures, and labor for its men. No, sir ; 
you should not complain of this vicious popu- 
lation. In truth and in fact, they are about 
the only stay and support you have there now, 
and you ought not to traduce them. From their 
very natures, they attach themselves to you, 
and I do not think by any treatment you will 
be able to drive them off. They are naturally 
with you ; they were alaves in their own coun- 
tries; they do not know anything else than to 
be the understrappers of somebody ; and when 
they hear that here are slaveholders contending 
with freemen, you find them with the former all 

the time. 

UNION AND DISUNION. 

Mr. President, I think this shows the antag- 
onisim between the institutions of the North 
and the South. We have not made them so. 
Nobody here is particularly to blame for the 
state of things that exists. It has grown im- 
perceptibly with our growth. Our lot has been 
cast either on one side of the line or the other. 
Our habits and our education have conformed 
to that state of things existing where our lot 
has been cast. I can appreciate and make al- 
lowances for that, but I cannot be biased as to 
the right of the matter. I know where that is. 
Now, what is the remedy for this ? If you 
bring us into collision, your system of despot- 
ism encountering our system of freedom here 
on this floor, do you suppose there will be no 
excitement ? Is any one so superficial as to 
believe that it will depend on the temper and 
disposition of a man how this great controversy 
shall be settled ? Not at all, sir. You may 
preach harmony, you may preach forbearance 
till doomsday ; but a violent conflict will take 
place every time these principles meet on this 
floor or elsewhere, because they are naturally 
antagonistic. God Almighty has made them 
so, and man cannot reconcile them. What, 



then, is our safely? It is to stand upon the 
principles you once professed, rigid State rights, 
yielding to the General Go'ernment just as lit- 
tle power as is possible to cement it together 
so far as to provide for the :;ommon defence ; 
for the moment you drag thee things into the 
General Government, I assume you that you 
may preach conciliation till domsday, and con- 
ciliation will not come. 

I do not know, sir, what is to be the result of 
this controversy. I know some :f you threaten 
to leave the Union unless you are gralifisd 
every time a collision takes plac?i between ua ; 
and that Texas of ours, with which I opened 
this debate, stands iu a singular attitude to- 
wards us to-day. I have in my drawer three 
resolutions of her Legislature, presented to us 
at this session, aekiug for men for her protec- 
tion, and for sums of money to indemnify her 
for expenses incurred, as ahe claims, in pro- 
tecting herself, and urging upon the General 
Government to make further provision for that 
State, which has already cost us so much. Her 
Legislature has sent to us a fourth resolution. 
I have not got it here, but I heard it read at 
the table; and, if I understood it avight, she 
has given us fair notice that she is about to go 
out of this Union. At all events, I do not 
think that was in good taste. I do not think 
it was politic; because we may say to her, "if 
you are really going to leave us, perhaps it is 
best for us to make no further appropriation 
for you." Why beg of us protection, and turn 
right around and tell us " we are going to put 
you at defiance ; we are going to hold a Hart- 
ford Convention of the South, to deliberate 
whether we shall leave the Union?'' Bpfore I 
vote for the supplies she at^ks, I think I shall 
want to hear an explanation of this. I may 
want to know whether they are to inure to the 
benefit of the Union, or to furnish powder to 
blow out our own brains. -r-" 

Let me eay here, Mr. President, that I have 
no apprehensions about the Union. The peo- 
ple I represent have got bravely over any 
qualms about your dissolving the Union. 
You may preach about it, and howl about it, 
until your lungs are sore; it will not move a 
muscle of my constituents or of myself. I know 
that our destinies are cast together; and wheth- 
er it is beneficial or not — and I do not know 
whether it is or not — you can obtain no di- 
vorce. We are wedded for better or for worse, 
and forever ; and we had better make the best 
of our lot. You cannot go out. The Senator 
from Alabama [Mr. Clay] asked the Senator 
from Wisconsin, [Mr. DoolittleJ in the course 
of his remarks, whether, if they undertook to 
go out cf the Union, we were going to forcibly 
interpose to prevent it ? I do not remember 
exactly what the answer was, but I wanted to 
ask another question, for it has taxed my inge- 
nuity to know how it is you can get a State out 
of this Union. If the most violent resolution, 
if the most flaming declaration, could have 



done i^ your Uaion would have been blown to 
atoms 'on{» as;o. It wants aomethinf; more 
than Conveiiliors; it wants fiomething stronger 
than resolutions. I do not ktiow how you pro- 
pose to effect it. II iw can a State so ont? A 
man may commit trea<ion uuder the Cunstitu 
tion of the United S'ates, if he levies war 
against them; be m^^y be hauled up and pun 
iBhed; but how, in Heaven's name, is a State 
to po out of the Union? I should like to have 
some one who talks about it show me the mo- 
\dt(S operandi. 

TUF, SUI'RKMK. COURT. 
There was one thinp I failed to mention in 
its proper place. I allude to the late nefarious 
decision of your Sjpreme Court. They made 
a new discovery — a discovery that, by vip;or of 
the Constitution of the United Statep, you can 
carry Slavery all over the continent wherever 
your flig may float. I approach that subject 
with no pleasure. I wish I could entertain a 
good opinion of the judges of that court. I 
wish I could believe they were patriotic. I wish 
I could believe they held the scales of justice 
equal between the r'ch and the pcor, the great 
and the small, unswerved by political consid- 
erations, uninfluenced by anything but their 
duty, which is the most Godlike that man can 
ever adniinisier; that is justice unmixed, un 
biased justice. I wish I could believe that 
that court were actuated by no other than 
these great Grdlike principles in the decision 
they have m-ide. It was a most extraordinary 
decision. The rcode of coming at it, the de- 
cision itself, the time when it was ma'fe, are all 
calculated to inspire the mind with a suspicion 
that all is not right. I aGRrm that the Supreme 
Court, in making this decision, has done what 
no court of the United States had ever done 
before; but I do not hold this court, and never 
did hold it, in tha", reverence which some gen- 
tlemen pretend to entertain. I remember that 
it seems to be the mere instrnment of political 
po^er. It follows it aq the incident follows the 
principal. In the old Federal times, when your 
alien and sedition law was parsed, and it came 
before that court, they found no difficulty in 
maintaining that mobt fl Jgrant violation of the 
Constitution. Your sedition law was upheld 
by the judges of that court, and men were im- 
prisoned by its process; and yet to day there is 
not a man to be found in these United States 
but what considers that law a most disgfraceful 
law to remain on the statute book. It does not 
remain there as a law, but it stands there as a 
memorial of the madness of party, and the 
easy method in which men will violate the Con- 
stitution of the United States. That wns up- 
held. All men now consider it as infamous, 
notwithstanding it had the sanction of that 
court. 

Almost the entire speech of the Senator ^^rom 
Louisiana — and I wish he was here — was made 
for the purpose of sustainin? the validity of 
that decision. I am not going extensively into 



it, for I have not time, nor does it need a very 
extensive examination to show that it is a fal- 
lacy, n mere sham ; that it has not the sem- 
blance or color of authority. 

rrn: dukd si-Dir dkcisio.v. 

Dred Scott, the plaintiff, claimed that he was 
a free man; and according to the course of 
practice from the earliest organizilion of the 
Government, in every district, (for the cases 
efitablishing it are numerous enough.) he sued 
for his freedom in the Circuit Court of the L ni- 
ted States. The pretended claimant put in a 
plea to the juritdiction. He said that Dred 
Scott was a negro; that his ancestors came 
from Africa ; that they were slavpp, and there- 
fore be was not a citizen of the United States, 
and he had no right to a hearing in that court. 
Dred Scott demurred to that plea; and that de- 
murrer came np before the court, and it was 
the only question they could decide. After 
getting the plaintiff out of court, and saying he 
has no standing here, after murdering him, the 
court go on to decFare principles most fatal to 
the liberties and rights of many of the Ameri- 
can people. The like was never done before 
in any courr. No court in this Union has been 
heretofore more chary of giving decisions that 
were not called for by the case, than the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. They have 
always repudiated it. They w.ould never go 
further than the necessities of the ca3e req-uired 
them to go. Was not the decision of the ques- 
tion of jurisdiction an end of this case? A 
majority of the judges decided that Dred Scott 
had no right to be in the court. They dismiss- 
ed him from their consideration. What further 
was there to do? The Senator from Louis- 
iana, in his argument, did not pretend, as a 
lawyer, to argue that this was not the effect of 
the decision ; but he uttered what seemed to me 
very much like sophistry. He read from the 
opinions of the court, claiming that they had a 
right to go farther. I do not care what they 
claimed. Any man that ever went through a 
lawyer's cflice knows that when they decided 
that the plaintiff had no standing in court, the 
case was at an end; and any opinion they 
should give after that was a n ere obiler dictum, 
entitled to no more respect than though it had 
been delivered here or in the streets. 

Mr. President, there is another thing to be 
considered in reference to that case. Here, to 
be sure, was a poor negro, having no friends, 
no consideration, nobody to look to his interests. 
He was a member of a degraded class, with 
whom the court might deal with perfect impu- 
nity. I fear that the court, swayed by political 
reasons, forgot the rights of Dred Scott, and 
plunged into this political whirlpool, in order to 
control its currents. Is it not remarkable that 
America, the first nation in the world, should 
decide that a man may be bo low that he can- 
not even seek his rights in the courts of the 
country ? Was there ever anylbing like it in 
any community before, whether civilized er 



6 



barbarous ? The court tellB tis we have men 
amon^ us so low that they can have no rights ; 
that they are mere merchandise. But I will 
not travel into that field, which has been so 
ably discussed by the Senator from New Hamp- 
shire, [Mr Hale ] They grounded their de- 
cision upon history, not the Constitution. They 
travelled out of the Constitution of the United 
States, and sought to found their decision upon 
what they picked up as scraps of history here 
and there ; and that history was entirely and 
utterly perverted, as was proved by the Senator 
from New Hampshire, so palpably that no gen- 
tleman on the other side has yet risen to chal- 
lenge its accuracv ; and they cannot do it. I 
have a law of Virginia here in my drawer, 
which was passed at about the period of which 
the Supreme Court speak when they say that 
negroes were considered as chattels whom any 
man might seize and convert to his own use. 
At that very instant, in old Virginia, he was a 
citizen, made so by statute, if he was free; and 
1 do not know but that he had all the rights of a 
white man. At all events, he was declared there 
to be a citizen. He was then a citizen in at 
least eight of the States of this Union. 

Mr. MASON. Will the Senator advert to that 
statute, and give me its title ? I will not inter- 
rupt him now, though. 

Mr. WADE. I will show it to the gentle- 
man. 

Mr. MASON. I will not interrupt the gentle- 
man now. 

Mr. WADE. I have it here, though I may 
not be able to put my hands on the exact place 
at this moment. In eight States of the Union, a 
black man was a citizen ; and I do not know but 
that he was entitled to all the rights of a white 
man ; for at that period you will find, if ycu search 
y the history of the country, that a distinction 
y between black and white was not taken. It was 
^--between slave and free. That was the question. 
Up to the time alluded to by the Chief Justice, 
I can find nothing that discriminates between 
the color of men. The only question was, 
whether a man was a freeman. If he was, he 
was entitled to all the rights of a freeman ; if 
he was not, he was a slave. But the Chief 
Justice says that all of them were so held. Good 
heavens I Had he not heard of the scathing 
anathema of Thomas Jefferson, of Judge Tuck 
er, and of other great lights and worthies of 
the Old Dominion, about that same period, 
in language more pointed than any other men 
could use ? When was it that Thomas Jeffer- 
son said he trembled for his country, when he 
reflected that God was just, and that his ven- 
geance would not sleep forever? Yet the Chief 
Justice says it vsas not controverted by anybody. 
Sir, it was controverted by every man of the 
Revolution, They, seeking their own rights at 
the cannon's mouth, claiming for themselves 
the utmost freedom, and invoking the aid of 
God to help them to work it out, had not the 
impudence to look to Heaven, and ask a bless- 



ing on their exertions in favor of a libertj which 
they denied to their fellow men. No such re- 
proach. Judge Taney, can be brought on the 
heads of the great worthies of the Revolution. 

The honorable Senator from Louisiana, with 
that plausible and beautiful style of which he ia 
so completely master, tried to escape from the 
rugged inconsistencies of this nefarious decis- 
ion, by passing a eulogy on the old Chief Justice. 
It was beautiful ; it relieved hitn from the bur- 
den of encountering the enormous, flaring un- 
constitutionalities and breaches of law summed 
up there. Why, sir, he went so far as to send 
the old man to Heaven even before he died. I 
do not think that decision will help him on his 
road. He coolly joins the current of popular 
opinion, turns away from the poor man who 
has sought the administration of law in his be- 
half, and says to him, " you are a negro, and 
you cannot sue in court ; if you have rights, we 
cannot investigate them ; you are a mere chat- 
tel." Sir, if that helps a man to heaven, God 
forbid that I should act upon such principles. 

CONGRESS NOT BARRED OUT. 
There is another consideration connected 
with this decision. I have not time, and I have 
not made it a point, to go into all ils enormities. 
There are only one or two points in it that I 
wish to bring before the Senate. So far as I 
have heard them, those who yield to the decis- 
ion of the Supreme Court seem to suppose that 
it is obligatory on everybody, and that the Senate 
of the United States, like pcor Dred Scott, are 
barred and thrown out of court ; that the Pres- 
ident of the United States, and the House of 
Representatives, and every department of the 
Government, are ignored, and no better off than 
poor Dred Scott. I deny the doctrine — the 
most dangerous thct could be admitted in a 
free country — that these judges, holding their 
office for life, reposing with total immunity, 
have any right to decide the law of the land for 
every department of this Government. Sir, you 
would have the most concentrated, irresponsi- 
ble despotism on God's earth, if you give such 
an interpretation to the decisions of that or any 
other court. No, sir ; each department must 
act for itself. I stand here, clothed with the 
same power, to proclaim what is the Constitu- 
tion upon the passage of any law that comes 
before us, as that or any other court. I follow 
my own interpretation of the Constitutioo ; I 
am bound to do it ; I have sworn that I would, 
and I beg of the Senate never to yield to this 
arbitrary doctrine that the Supreme Court can 
bind the other departments of the Government; 
that we must yield to the decisions that they 
make. No, sir ; never. They may decide on 
the poor man's rights, who is so unfortunate ab 
to fall within their grasp. They have decided 
that Dred Scott could not sue in the court. 
Right or wrong, constitutional or unconstitu- 
tional, that stands. It is the highest court ; it 
has decided in the last resort. Dred Scott's 
rights have been determined, and determined 



/ 



forever; but no other department of the Gov- ] 
crnment, no other riijhf, was touched. Talk 
about their decidins? that Slavery existB ir) I 
Kansas as much as in South Oarolii a 1 Talk i 
about the highest tribunal in iho land dtcidinjr 
that Slavery is in your Territories; that every ' 
inch of prouud outf^ide of the free States is slave 
territory I I pity thf weakness of the man who 
yields to any such ideas as that That court 
has no such trautffiident power. It could bind 
Bobody but the pui'or-i in the court. It would 
j ^JLte unfortunate if it could. 

I know with whit avidity yonr facile Presi- I 
dent seized upnn the idea, and sfultlBed himeelf ; 
by saying that it was a mystery to him (hat any | 
man shouH ever doubt it. The Senator from 
Michigan [Mr. Ciiandlek] yesterday dispooed I 
of him in that particular. He disposed of him j 
forever, and showed a hypocrisy, I am com- [ 
pelled to Eay, disgraceful to a man, even in a I 
private station. He who had deliberately put | 
forth the doctrines cf the Missouri Compromise ; 
he who had sought, over and over aeain. in the 
ripeness of his judgment, after full delibcra- . 
tion, to procure its extension and recognition ' 
by Congress, now turns coldly around, and tells ; 
us it is a mystery that any man should ever I 
have doubted it I Well, sir, if Mr. Buchanan 
is a mystery to himself, he is no mystery to 
me. ! 

HKAR THK SLAVE POWER. 
There is ere other consideration that I w'sh 
to brirg be'cre the Senate. Why is it, and 
how is it, ihat the Southern States, with one- 
third, or lef s ihan one-third, of the free popula- , 
tion of this ration, have been enabled lor s'xty 
years to rule the destinies cf the country ? It 
has been dor e, in the first place, (and that is 
one reason why I contest every inch cf ground.) 
becasse in a close oligarchy you have a power 
that a democracy of the same numbers can 
never have politically. The power of the Gov- 
ernment seems to be in inverse ratio to the num- 
ber of people that panicipaie in the Gov- 
ernment. And this i3 obvious enough. You 
have a class of not more than three hundred 
and fifty ihonsar.d slaveholders in th'^ United 
States. Tbc-y have governed this Union (so 
says the Senator from South Carolina, and he 
says truly) fur sixty long years ; not the peopl*' 
of the South, miLd you ; he pays the slavehold- 
ers have ruled r,he nation. That is true. First 
of all, they placed their feet on ibe recks of all 
those who do not hold slaves. The poor men 
of the South he utterly ignores, as having any 
political powr, and I suppose they have none. 
They have vores, no doubt ; but those votes are 
given in accordanc with the will of this aris- 
tocracy, who a: e all-powerful; for it haq been 
observed, and truly observed, that he who has 
the power over iKe subsistence of another has 
the power over his will. You, the wealhy 
slaveholders of the South, wield absolute do- 
minion over your poorer white neighbors ; 
therefore it was that the Senator from South 



Carolina anid the alaveholders have ruled the 
nation. You three hundred and fifty thounand 
flaveholdera have rul»d your nix million whitea, 
(I go according to the census of IHjO,) yoa 
Kave not only ruled your six millioti, hut yoa 
have al^o ruled the fourteen millioD free people 
of the North. 

How have you done it? Yon have done it 
because you had a general bond of interest 
unilii'g you, tving you toirether an if animated 
by one soul. What was th»> interc-ct of one, waa 
the interest of another. You are forced all on 
the same piafform, all acting; to one end. Yon 
found the Democracy of th« North divided in 
various pursuits, laboring in thf ir various avo- 
cations, with very little time to study this prob- 
lem of politics ; and you have always bsen able 
to seduce enout'h of us over to you, to enable 
you to carry your Government along. I know 
that gentleman smile at this; but I am com- 
pelled by truth to state facts here that I wish I 
could hide from the world. It is a rottenness 
at the North that you do not have. It is dis- 
reputable to us, but I am compelled to admit it. 

ADAf;LKRREOTVHE FOR THE BENKl'IT OF FU- 
TIKK AfiES. 
Your allies, the doughfaces cf the North, in 
my judgment, are the most despicable of men. 
The modern doughface is not a character ne- 
culiar to the a^je in which we live, but yon find 
traces of him at every period of the world's 
history. He is void of pride ; he is void of self- 
respect; he is actuated by a mean, grovelling 
selfishness, that would sell his Maker for a 
price. Why, fir, when old Moses, under the 
immediate inspiration of God Almichty, en- 
ticed a whcle nation of slaves, and ran awty, 
not to Canada, but to old Canaan, I suppose 
that Pharaoh and all the chivalry of old Egypt 
denounced him as a most furious Abolitionist. 
[Liughter.] I do not know but that they blas- 
phemed their God, who had assisted the fugi- 
tives from labor to escape. I have no doubt at 
all, that when some Southern gentlemen of the 
Gcspel come up to preach to the North, they 
will say that the Almighty acted a very fanati- 
cal part in this bueiness. I am afraid they 
will say so; for He was aiding and abetting in 
the escape. But amidst the glories of that 
great delivarance, even feeding upon miracles 
cf the Almighty as they went along, there were 
not wanting these who loved Egypt better than 
they loved liberty ; whose souls Icnged for the 
flesh-pots of Egypt ; and who could turn from 
the visible glories of the Almighty God to wor- 
ship an Egyptian calf. These were the dough- 
faces of that day. They were national men. 
[Laughter.] They were not exactly Northern 
meu with Southern principles; but they wers 
liraelites with Egyptian principles. [Laughter.] 
Again : when the Saviour of the world went 
forth on his great mission to proclaim glad 
tidings of joy to all the people of the earth, to 
I break every yoke, and to preach deliverance to 
' the captive, He met with the same class of men 



8 



in the persona of Judas lacariot and the chief 
priests. In the days of our own Revolution, 
when Washington and hia noble associates were 
carrying on that struggle to establish justice, 
and to secure the blessings cf liberty to them 
selves and their posterity, they met with the 
same class of men in the admirers of George 
III and Lord North. 

They are all of the same class — fal se to the 
education of their fathers — false to the great 
principles which have been inslilled into them 
by their mothers from their birth — willing to do 
anythiug that will minister to the cupidity of 
their masters, let the consequences be what 
they may. It is this ciasa of men, aided by a 
close aristocracy at the S luth, that has euabiec 
the minority to rule with iron hand the majori- 
ty, since the organization of this Government. 
I have endeavored to daguerreotype these men 
for the benefit of future ages ; for I believe 
tha', like the Indian tribes, they are disappear- 
irg. You have put them to very hard service, 
sir. They die faster than the Northern negroes 
in your rice-swamps — politically, I mean. You 
put them to service that they cannot stand. 
Whea you ask them to vote for a fugitive bill. 
they may do it once, but political death 
stares them in the face. When you ask them 
to go with you for the repeal of the Missouri 
reairietion, you find the same et8>te of things. 
And now, worst of all, when yen ask ihem to 
fasten upon their fellow meu, in a Teriiiory of 
the United Stateo, a Constitution which that 
people abhor, I tell you every Northern repre- 
sentative who participates in this act is not 
only politically dead, but he may thank his 
God if he escapes with that. 

A LAWYER -ADMITS AWAY HIS OWN CASE. 

I find, sir, that I am detaining the Senate 
longer than I wished ; and yet, if I am to go 
over the argument of the subject immediately 
under consideration, I shall have to detain 
them some time longer. [" Go on I "] I shall 
be as brief as possible on this part of the case. 
I desire first to notice some things ia the argu- 
ment of the able and eloquent gentleman from 
Louisiana, [Mr. Benjamin,] who addressed ua 
on the day before yesterday. He endeavored 
to shew that there was a distinction between 
the right of a slaveholder to his slave and the 
remedy he might have ; and hence he claimed 
that, when a slave went into a ftee country, the 
master did not lose hia right over him, but lost 
the remedy. He said that in a free country, 
where there was no law for the protection of the 
rights cf the master, he did not lose his right to 
the slave, but lost his remedy — lost his power to 
control the slave. He likened it to the case of a 
man who had a patent right, or a poet who had 
a property in the productions of his own inspi- 
ration. I will read the Senator's language, tc 
show how the most gifted man, when he is not 
on his guard, may admit away his own case. 
He said : 



" There lives now a man in England, who, from time 
to time finps, to the enclianied ear of the civilized world, 
-trains of such melody that the charmed senses seem to 
abandon the grosser regions of earih, and to rise to purer 
and serener regions above. God has creafd that man a 
poet. His inspiration is his; his song- are his by right 
Divine; they are his properly, so recrgnised by liuman 
law; yet here, in these United Slater men steal Tenny- 
son's works, and sell his property for their profit: and 
this because, in spite of the violatfd conscience of the 
nation, we refuse to give him protection for his property." 

Again, following out the same idea, he said : 

" Does not every man see at onf e that the right of the 
inventor to his discovery, that the right of the poet to 
hi.^ inspiration, depends upon tho'e principles of eternal 
justice which God has implanted in ihe heart of man ; 
and that wherever he cannot exerci-e them, it is because 
man, faithless to the trust that he has received frotn 
God, denies them the protection to which they are enti- 
tled." 

That is a very sound doctrine, in my judg- 
ment ; it is an appeal to that higher law which 
has been so much traduced. The poet has a 
divine right to the inspiration of his genius and 
the products of his mind ; the inventor of a 
machine has a God-given right to the use of hia 
discovery. Does not the honorable Senator 
see, that if these rights are from God, above 
human law, no Constitution and no law can 
take them away ? And how much more has a 
man a right to his own body and to his own 
soul, than he can be said to have to his own 
producdoas? How could the gentleman fail to 
see that, if the poet and the inventor had this 
divine right, the slaveholder could not claim 
the right cf ownership over another man? 
Would not that man have the came God-given 
right that he claims for the pcei and the dis- 
coverer? Most assuredly he would. This ad- 
mission stultified his whole ca-.e. He admits, 
then, that Slavery would be impossible. It is 
not a matter of right. No, sir ; he might as 
well admit at the outset that Slavery is not a 
matter of right. It is a ma ter ct positive law. 
It is a matter of force. It is a matter of fraud. 
It is not a matter cf right ; and the moment 
the slave gets beyond the power fo enforce the 
mandate, he is as free as his master. Has God 
Almighty put any mark on hia], by which you 
can say, when he gets into a foreign jurisdic- 
tioi), which is the elave and which the master? 
The slave might as well claim a right to the 
master, as the master to the biave, the moment 
he passes beyond the jurisdiction. 

THE GRKAr FfiAUD. 
Now, Mr. President, wish regard to the Kan- 
sas question, I thall treat it very briefly. I 
contended here, four years ago, ihat the abro- 
gation of the MisBCuri re8iti:;'.ion would be 
attended by the same train of circumstances 
that has taken place. I conteuded then that 
you were opening this Territory to strife and to 
contention ; that you were puttirg it up to a 
vendue, to make it a theatre where the most 
selfiih and outrageous passiona would contend 
for the mastery; that you were begettirg a state 
of civil war. You claimed that it was going to 
be all peace ; that it was done for the purpose 
of withdrawing this terrible controversy from 



9 



the Halls of Corgreas to your Terrltoriee. Do 
you gain anything by it? A^ilution begins in 
your Territories. Is it not sure to find its way 
into thene HalU 7 

The House of Representatives pent into lha» 
Territory a commission of the most honorable 
men,notonoueeidecf politics, but on both, there 
to investigate the charges that were made 
against the first Legislature. I have its report 
before me. I have read more than ninety of 
the depositions that were taken, of m'n whj 
are not impeached, mtn who were partisans, 
many of them against the side of the qupsiiou 
■which I advocate. Here are their depotiiions. 
Perhaps I had better read some of them. They 
go to show you that even before this law waa^ 
passed, there were orgnn ztd upon the borders' 
of Missouri divers lodges, under d'fl'erent 
names, for the sole and only purpose of carry- 
ing Slavery into that Territory at all hazards. 
That was the object of their orgauizition. They 
had all the paraphernalia of a secret society. 
They had their grips, their pass words, their 
modes of recognition of one another; and be- 
fore the day of election they went over tbtre,em- 
bodied in military array, in vaet number-', with 
their colors flyicg and their drums beating, 
with gune, cannon, pistols, and bowie knive?. 
They disseminated themselves through all the 
Territory, took possession rf all the polls but 
one, and fiequeutly removed the judge?, giving 
them a certain time to deliver the poll books — 
a few minutes — holdirg wa*ch in haiid, and 
pointing pistols at the heads of the election 
judges. They drove them off with force and 
fraud. This is undeniable. The volume be- 
fore me proves it. It will go down to the latest 
posterity, that these nefarious acts are proved. 
They are part of the records of your legisla-.' 
tion. They never shall be gainsayed. ''- 

I know the Sencitor from South Carolina, and 
a good many other Senators, have been willing 
to divide the odium of this transaction wiih us. 
He thought there were disgraceful frauds en 
both sides — •' disg'-aceful," said be, "to the 
country," and he has not sought to investigate 
them. He says it is a disagreeable subject, 
and he has no doubt both sides are guilty. Sir, 
it was not on both sides. It was only on one 
side. You took possession of those polls. You 
elected your own men, members of a foreign 
State, who came in there to control the desti- 
nies of this Territory, which it was especially 
said should be ruled as its own ciiizans pleased. 
I do not want to detain the Senate by read- 
ing the pages which I have turned down in this 
document, unless some gentlemen wishes to hear 
them. They are long, but they are all perti- 
nent. All go to show the fasts I have stated, 
and there is nobody to deny or contradict them. 
Now, you aey we do not prove them. Did 
not we ask you for a commission to exam- 
ine them during the last Congress? We 
made charges ; we said they were true ; we had 
letters and communications imploring us to in- 



vestigate the state of things that was prevailing j 
there ; but as often as we aakcd you to ^ive us a ' 
commission, you refused it. S'.andiin? on that 
refusal, you turn round and deny th«> wei^^ht of 
iho authorities we produ-e. Sir. that will not 
sro down. Now, at a la'er day, when your can- 
dle-box frauds, your forgeries most di-ttraceful, 
are comifg to light — when they are known of 
nil men — we ask you for a commission to invest- 
igate this matter; nnd as ofien as w(> ask it, 
you turn ronrd coolly and vote ns down, and 
then deny thit there is any such thing! Sir, 
the country will take cogni7,%nc3 of that. 

The fraud by which the election of March .30, 
1855, was carried, is eatablisbed. I know you 
undertake to estop us by saying that Governor 
Reeder gave certificates to a majority of th<j 
members. So he did ; but that did not cur-^ 
the usurpation. I tbiiik the Governor allowed 
but four days to receive protests contesting the 
.seats of the members elect. The people, scat- 
tered as they were, could not prepare their me- 
morials to the Governor and get them there in 
time. In every instance where it was done, the 
election was set aside for moet palpable frauds ; 
but the setting th?m aside availed nothinjr. 
There were your bine lodges, your usurpers, in 
power. They were tnking their seats by a usurp- 
ation ; they were not to be tarn<:d aside by 
anything like this. New electio'}s were ordered 
in several of the districts, aid in every instance 
the Free State men were returned : but, on the 
very first day of the meeting of the Legislature, 
without investigation, without referring to a 
committee, they just turned every Free S ate 
man right out of the Legislature. What good 
would ic do to give certificates ? But is a man 
to be estopped on a gross usuroation like this ? 
Is an American citizen to be ebeatedout of his 
rights under forms of law ? I ask any honora- 
ble gentleman on the other side, would yon sub- 
mit to it ? No, sir, you would not. Would you 
submit to be governed by a (Tang of usurpers, 
who, without right, and in defiance of ri?ht, 
had taken possession of your ballct-boxes, de- 
feated your election, turned your cour.trvmen 
out, and foreigners usurped ycur places ? Would 
technicalities avail ? No, sir ; I have too high 
ancp'nion of you to believe that. 

It would be idle, mere miserable pettifoeging, 
to come in and say, oh, you have certificates 
from the Governor, and that cures everything, 
and we cannot be admitted to prove that it was 
a usurpation. Sir, there was not a man who 
received his certificate as having been elected 
on that day, who had any more title to a seat 
in the Legislature than he had to the kingdom 
of heaven ; and can a certificate give a man 
the right to rule in this country ? Sir, Amer- 
ican liberty rests on no fragile bans like that ; 
and shame to the man who will say that he 
would succumb to a fraud like this. 

Such was the original usurpation. It was 
the result of fraud. It was worse than void. 
It was a result brought about by the commia- 



10 



sion of the highest crimes against American 
liberty that man can be guilty of. It was a 
Legislature elected in this manner, that took 
the initiatory step;? towards the Convention 
■which framed this Constitution. I say a body 
elected in such a manner could do no legal 
acts. They got together, however, and in hot 
haste passed all the laws of Missouri in a bcdy, 
as the Senator from Michigan stated yesterday. 
They did not alter their titles, but tfrey took a 
short road, by saying we will take the whole 
code, and wherever it says State it shall be con- 
strued to mean " Territory." I have looked 
through that code eomewbat. and there I find 
the provisions for patrols to keep the slaves in 
order at night, as they have in Missouri. Those 
laws were tTangferred into the Territory of 
Kansas before there was, perhaps, a single 
slave there. Laws were passed ordering the 
people to patrol the districts, to see that the 
slaves kept in order. The fact is, that they 
swallowed the Missouri statute book whole, and 
did not know what was in it, and to them it 
made no difference what was in it. They went 
further, and passed laws which would have 
been disgraceful to any king or country, from 
Nero to Nicholas. You can find no such laws 
on any statute book. They were unconstitu- 
tional ; and even General Cass, on this floor, 
was compelled to say that they were infamous 
and disgraceful to the age ; but yet the Senate 
of the United Stat?s would not repeal them. 

The Senator from Louisiana did not touch on 
this subject. He passed it by as easily and as 
lightly as he could. He dwelt on the beauties 
of old Judge Taney mere than he did on the 
frauds and violence in Kansas. He talked 
about the Toombs bill, and said we would not 
vote for it. He sa'd the people of the Terri 
tory sent here petitions, and wanted Congrefs 
to accept the Topeka Constitution, but the ma 
jority in this body would not do that, but were 
willing to pass an enabliDf:; act. There is a 
little curious hist'^ry mixed up with that act. 
■which has corce out at this ses'^ion. It is all of 
a piece with the candle-box frauds, and shows 
that that was intended as a snap judgment. 
The Toombs bill was plausible upon its face 
and really the great objection to it at the time 
was the state of the Territorv. It was then in 
the hands of the Border Ruffians, the usurpers, 
and it was impossible to get officers there who 
would act with any fairness, or give any cer- 
tainty that .Tiuything like justice ■Kr'ould be done 
That was our real objection to it, for I was in 
my heart so convinced that the principle was 
universally acknowledged that a Constitution 
formed by a Convention ought to be submitted 
to the people, that I did not know but it was 
contained in that bill ; I was off my guard. I 
could not believe any American citizen would 
endeavor to rob a people of this God given 
right of forming their own institutions, espe- 
cially as you had said that the people of Kansas. 
above all others, should be perfectly free to 



make their own institutions in their own way. 

How was that ? I have learned during the 
session, by what has come out at sidebar here, 
that this was a matter of deliberation at that 
day ; that the Committee on Territories, as I 
have understood the statement, were summon- 
ed to the house of their chief, there to sit in 
judgment on this very clause, whether the peo- 
ple should or should not have this right ; and 
I understand that there such a clause in the 
first bill was stricken out, and it was passed 
by this bodv without any such clause. 

Mr. HALE. For "peculiar reasons." 

Mr. WADE. Yes, sir, for peculiar reasons. 
It was a matter of premeditation. It did not 
happen by accident. You did not intend, at 
that period or at any other, that the people 
should have the right to sit in judgment on the 
Constitution by which they were to be governed. 

[A running discussion here took place in 
regard to the meeting of the committee and its 
deliberations, in which Mr. Bigler reaffirmed 
what he had previously said about the striking 
out of the clause for submitting the Constitu- 
tion to the people. It was finally cut short by 
ihe motion to adjourn. Oa the following Mon- 
day, Mr. WADE resumed.] 

THE LITTLE MYSTERIES OF POLITICS. 

Mr. President, when I alluded on Saturday 
to that enabling act which was called the 
Toombs bill, I had no idea that I was about to 
wake up so many reminiscences as I have, in 
almost every direction, in this Chamber. I call- 
ed attention to it, not with any purpose what- 
ever of raising any question over the manner 
in which a clause in that bill seemed to have 
been stricken out. I do not care who struck it 
out ; I do not care what deliberations were had 
about it. The reason, and the only reason, 
why I alluded to it was, that I thought the Sen- 
ator from Louisiana, [Mr. Bexjamin,] in calling 
attention to it, had given it a consequence to 
which it was not entitled ; and I had some ob- 
servations that I thought proper to make on 
that point. But the Senator from Pennsylva- 
nia, [Mr. Bigler.] always exceedingly jealous 
of any imputation as to his differing with the 
President on any question, supposed that some 
one was about arraigning him for a departure 
'rom the Democratic faith on this subject. 
Now, sir, I should have been the last man in 
the world to suspect him of any such thing. I 
supposed he and the President were just as 
much alike as the Siamese twins. [Laughter.] 
I supposed what one thought the other thought; 
what befel one, always befel the other at the 
jarae time. I have no doubt that he is always 
orthodox. I hardly know, from his remarks, 
who was the great discoverer of this improved 
idea of popular sovereignty. The President, to 
be sure, tells us that, ia regard to fubmitting 
Constitutions to the people, he formerly held 
that this Constitution must be submitted to the 
people of Kansas, to the whole people ; and that 
they must have a fair opportunity to vote on it, 



11 



a. 



and must not be interruped by fraud or vio- 
lence ; but in his late mesaaije he tells us that 
his miud at that period was fixed entirely on the 
Slavery clauEe ; he did not think of anjthiuor 
else. I understand the Senator from Pennsyl 
vania to have declared on Saturday that he 
formerly held that a Constitution certainly 
should be submitted to the people, for their ap 

f)roval or dissent ; but he also observed that he, 
ike the President, when he said so, thought of 
nothing except the Slavery clauie. I do not 
know but that it may be prudent, in the view of 
some, to withhold the whole of a Constitution 
firom the consideration of the people who are to 
live under it at the time. It might be an over 
dose; it might be a little too much for the stora 
achs of the people to take a whole (VinsUtution ; 
and if the people are not to judge c( it, who can 
do it belter than Doctor Buchanan, or the Sen- 
ator from Pennsylvania? They give it to the 
people by clauses ; they suppose there are some 
things too high for the consideration of the peo- 
ple, when they come to investigate a Constitu- 
tion. There are other matters, if I understand 
them, which it is safe to intrust the people with, 
and they are to be the judges of what shall be 
submitted. 

Bat, sir, I was led to this course of remark 
from the zeal of gentlemen to define their posi- 
tions on this subject. I suppose it is a princi- 
ple of the Democratic parly always to be in 
line with the President on all subjects. I sup- 
pose, if he takes snufif, every true Democrat 
ought to sceezi, or else be read out of the party ; 
and I suppoee all true Democrats are willing 
to do that. I have taken it for granted that 
such would be the fact. But I will state my ob- 
ject in calling attention to the Toombs bill. I 
was not invited into the famous council where 
all the clauses of that bill were taken under 
consideration, and yet I doubt not that I under- 

__6tand it just about as well as they did, and they 
will correct me if I do not state it aright. A 

. bill admitting Kansas under what was called 
the Toptka Conslitution had lately passed the 
House of Representatives, at the period at which 
the Toombs bill was framed. It was sent here; 
and this body had voted it down. The Repub 
licans voted for it, and the Democracy voted 
against it. We were outnumbered, and the To- 
peka CoEstilution was killed. As the Presiden- 
tial campaign was approaching, it did not look 
exactly right, considering the commotions that 
had taken place in Kansas Territorry, that, 
after voting down the proposition the people oi 
the Territory had given yoa, you should go into 
the canvass without substituting anything for it. 
If I was to guess now, I should think that 
council was held for the purpose of getting up 
a very plausible measure, which they knew the 
Republicans would have to vote against, and 
which could not pass the House of Representa- 
tives, and which would be a very good thing 
to take on the stump in the canvass. My 
opinion is, that that is about all the importance 



that ia to bo attached to what was called the 
Toombs bill. 

I do not care much what clauses it had in it. 
It was plauBible enough on its fa^e, I know, 
except in this particular; and I was off my 
ouard in relation to it. I did not look to see 
whether it had that or not; I did not care 
whether it had it or not. I knew then, as now, 
that the Administration had everything their 
own way in that Territory; and when you pro- 
vided for officers to execute your law, it it were 
made by an angel from heaven, it would be 
perverted to the very worst of purpoHes, and it 
would be turned into a party channel that 
could not be got rid of. I knew that was eo, 
and I voted against the bil', because no bill 
could be properly, justly, and equitably carried 
out in the Territory under the clFicers who 
then presided there. It gave the Democratic 
party a little advantage over us, becauee oor 
ideas were not patent on the face of the bill, 
and people would probably look to its language 
more than they would to the circumstances 
prevailing in the Territory, which rendered it 
exceedingly inexpedient that anybody should 
then vote for the immediate organization of the 
Territory into a State, under the officers who 
were to take charge of it. 

The Senator from Louisiana alluded to it as 
a reproach to the Republicans here, that they 
did not vote for it, as though it was an olive 
branch held out by the Damocrary that we re- 
fused, and the people there refu-ed. He inti- 
mated, that while we professed to wish that 
something might be done to make peace in the 
Territory, and give the poeple a Slate Consti- 
tution, with aright to regulate th^ir affiirs, we 
stood here to reject it. He said, that while the 
people were calling for assistauce, we were 
voting against the measure proposed, to which, 
he argued, there was no objection. That is a 
very lawyer-like argument, and very shrewd, 
and it might possibly deceive the people ; but 
it will not deceive Senators. We all under- 
stand these little policies that prevail here. I 
will say no more about that bill. It is a thing 
of the past ; let it go. 

tTHE CONVENTION. 
I am not in a condition to prolong this de- 
bate a great while, and therefore I shall pass 
o the next phase of the matter. You say the 
Legislature authorized a Convention. They 
could call it ; tV.ere was nothing wrong about 
it ; but I contend there was no auihority about 
It. They called a Convention. Now, this is 
the position I assume, and I invite attention to 
it from any part of this Chamber, from the 
most eminent lawyers in it : If the Territorial 
Legislature had no authority to call a Conven- 
tion ; if it still required an enabling act to give 
it real legal validity ; then, whrn they called 
iheir Convention, it was perfectly optional with 
the people to comply with the act or not. It 
was a mere voluntary call on ihem, not author- 
ized by law, inviting them to vote for delegates 



to frame a Constitution under which they would 
live. 

This act having no binding authority of law, 
it was at the option of every man to do just as 
he pleased about it. If he went, it was well 
enough. If he failed to gc, you could not de- 
nounce him as having done anything wrong, 
because there was no law compellirg bim to 
go. It was a mere invitation from an irrespon- 
sible power, to come up and aid them in doing 
a certain act. That is all the shrewdest law- 
yer can make out of it. So we strip you even 
of the technicality of law, upon which you seek 
to deprive the people of Kansas of the right of 
self government. Your technicality has failed 
you. It is not even necesgary for us to go 
back, and show your L=gislature to be arrant 
usurpers and enemies to the great maps of the 
people there, as they were. We may, if we see 
fit, denounce you as rebels with as much rea- 
son as you have denounced us, because you 
got together without authority of law, and 
sought to frame a Constitution under which 
you would live. 

The President has said, over and over again, 
that this was done by authority of law, that the 
people had a perfect right to go and vote, and 
that it was their duty to go; and that if they did 
not go, they were in default. He said it was 
all fair. Now, sir, I take no pleasure in sayin? 
that the President, at the very time he made 
this declaration, if he was not blind, deaf, and 
dumb, must have known that it was not true. 
If he had read the communications that were 
sent to him constantly from that Territory, bv 
its Governors and its other cflScers, he could 
not fail to have known, at the time he made 
this declaration, that in one-half of the counties 
no census was taken or record made of the vo- 
ters, and the law required that as a condition 
upon which a man should vote. No man need 
rise and tell me here that that is not so, because 
I will face him down with authorities that he 
cannot overcome. I have the law that required 
the regirtry; I have the law that required the 
census to be taken. The question i?, was it 
taken ? If it was not taken, why was it ROt 
done ? Governor Walker says it was not taken 
for no fault of the people there. He says, in 
some of his letters, that it was not taken in 
many counties, because there was no pay provi- 
ded for those who should do it, and they would 
not do it for nothinsr; and in other places, the 
people, suspecting that it was all a trick and a 
Iraud, were reluctant. But that was no excuse. 
You never have taken a census of the United 
States where there were not vast numbers of 
people who were most strenuously opposed to 
It; and on ir.quin'ng, your deputy'marehals, es 
they go round, were frequently chased out of 
the houses by the women with broomsticks, 
thinking, probabiy, that the object was to levy 
a tax on thsm. Would that be any excuse for 
not taking a ceneus? You find one or two 
men who are reluctant or opposed to it for any 



reason. Can the President plant himself upon 
a solitary objection like that, and say it was an 
excuse that the people would not submit their 
names to be registered ? If a man would not 
comply with the law, if he would not give his 
name when he was asked, he would be no gen- 
tleman, I grant you ; but you could not convict 
him of any crime for not doing it, and certainly 
you could not deprive his neighbor, who was 
perfectly willing to give bis name, of his rights. 
You indulge in these generalities ; you say that 
A, B, C, or D, v/ent into a country, and Tom, 
Dick, or Harry, said, " I will not have my name 
registered," and then turn about and say the 
people can lose their liberties by a default con- 
sequent on such proceedings as these ! Sir, it 
is arrant nonsense, come from what source it 
may. 

The fact was, that the people could not vote 
if they would ; and, in a great many instances, 
would not if they could ; and I commend them 
for it. The experience they had had in that Ter- 
ritory had shown them already that it was a mere 
empty mummery to vote, for votes did no good. 
Cincinnati Directories and candle-box 'returns 
have been infinitely more potent than the real 
votes of the inhabitants of that Territory. What 
good would it do them to vote? You had al- 
ready taught them that there was a purpose to 
be accomplished, and, if votes would not an- 
swer, Cincinnati Directories, forged returns, 
anything, would be resorted to ; the thing would 
move on, msjority or no majority. 

The American people are supposed to be a 
shrewd people. They understand pretty well 
Peter Funk auctions. Once ia a while, a green- 
horn gets taken in, but the great mass of the 
people will not be taken in by them. But the 
President of the United States has set up and 
devised schemes as shallow, as fraudulent — 
yea, as infamous as that ; and he supposes the 
people of the United States are going to be 
defrauded by such nefarious means as those. 
Sir, he will fiad they will not work. They 
would not work in the days of the Revolution, 
and much less will they work now. 

_ TERRITORIAL ELECTION. 

Well, sir, a Legislature was elected shortly 
after the time these delegates were elected to 
frame a Constitution. You attempted an out- 
rageous fraud then, in order to carry the Legis- 
lature. Your Oxford and Delaware Crossing 
frauds were resorted to. I have the evidence 
of them all here. Nobod? doubts them. There 
is not a man here who will rise and say that it 
is not the truth that these frauds were open, 
palpable, notorious, and understood by every- 
body. Governor Walker investigated them, 
and said so. lie even went up into one of the 
precincts where these frauds were committed, 
and found that it was impossible such a vote 
could have been cast there. He foand the peo- 
ple amazed that any such pretences should be 
made; and he found that the names of your 
best men, whose names were notorious, known 



13 



all over the counlrj, were on the voMnp lists, 
because they did not aeem to have j^jreal; facil- 
ity in invenlinp names. They seized upon all 
the great names of the country, and placed them 
upon their list. Governor Wnlker took the 
returns of Johnson county and others. He 
seemed to ponder over that subject a little; 
and I am sorry that he did. I am amazed that 
any man, in any section of the country, the very 
moment that he found that such a fjroRS, insult 
ing fraud had been sought to be palmed off 
upon the people, bhould hfsitato an instant to 
throw il into the face of the scoundrels who had 
presented it. He hesitated, and after he knew 
how it was, he saw fit to phica his rejection of 
the return en a technicality, rather than on the 
naked deformity — the want of Yotes. They had 
not cdrtified the fraud in technical latiguagp, 
and thereforj he threw it out. I should have 
thrown it out for the substantial reason, and 
thrown your technicality to the dogs. 

How was he met ? It was said — I do not 
know with what truth, it was in all the papers — 
that the fortunes of the Governor and Secreta- 
ry declined, from the moment they rejected these 
infamous frauds. It changed the character of 
the Legislature. It gave a vast majority in 
that Legislature to the Republicans ; whereas, 
if these frauds were made effectual, they would 
have made this Legislature just like that which 
preceded it. It was a great disappointment, 
and it is said that some sections of the country 
" howled " over it; and President Buchanan, 
as they began to howl, trembled at their howl- 
ing, and it resulted in the dismission of both 
those honest ctficers from their trust. Sir, fu- 
ture ages will be amazed at the audacity of the 
President who would make it a matter of re- 
proach to one of his officers that he had failed 
to give effr'ct to a fraud which should confine 
a man to the penitentiary for life. 

ACTION' OF THi: CONVENTION. 

But, sir, the fraud was discovered ; nobody 
could gainsay it ; the Free State legislative 
ticket was triumphant ; and now what is to be 
done ? Your Lecompton Convention quailed 
and trembled under that aspect of the case. 
They went to drumming up their men, and they 
hardly got a quorum, because they saw that the 
sceptre had deparred from this Judah, and it 
had got into the hands of honest men. Your 
Lecomptonites did not like to brave public 
opinion, and enact this famous Lecompton 
Constitution. I believe they never did get a 
quorum there. The fact is, that every man 
who had the least sense of decency or shame 
about him, never appeared in the Convention 
at all ; but a minority appeared, and they con- 
jured up a Constitution. We have it here, sir. 
We have it sent to us for ratification by the 
President of the United States; and when he 
sent it, he was in full possession of these nefa- 
rious facts. Instead of sending it to us, he 
should have trampled it under his heel as a 
spurious thing, disgraceful to all who gave assent 



to it. They made their Coistitu'ion, and they 
provided for submilting a part of it to the peo- 
ple. Haw? It is sometimes contended on 
this floor that it was understood when this Con- 
vention met that they were to be clothed with 
plenary, sovereign, irrevocable power, to make 
just such a Government for that people as they 
pleastid ; that their doiiigB, under no circum- 
stances, were ever to be submiittd to the peo- 
ple. There ia plausibiiiiy in that, because you 
recollect that the act calling the Convention 
was vetoed by the Governor because it did not 
contain a clause .iubmitling the Constitution to 
the people ; but it was passed over the head of 
your Governor by a two-thirds vote of these 
patriots. So it was premeditated malice. It 
was deliberated upon ; and fraud was medita- 
ted by them. Ttey knew very well they could 
not make a mistake about it, that the people 
who bad just returned a Legislature against 
them, by more than three to one, would nullify 
this beautiful Constitution of theirs mighty 
quick, if it were submitted to them ; and hence 
they were going to steal a Constitution, and 
fasten it on the necks of their fellow citizens 
behind their backs and against their will. The 
President has aided and abetted this fraud. 

Now, sir, after the Lecompton Convention 
made this Constitution, even if there had been 
any legality about it, before it became binding 
on the people, the Legislature whom the people 
had just chosen lock the subject under consid- 
eration, and they sent forth their edict of more 
than ten to one, (for they represented more 
than ten to one of the people of the Territory,) 
that this Constitution should be submitted to the 
popular vote. But Mr. Buchanan says, " ah 1 
it was a little too late." Good God, sir I When 
R man lets judgment go against him by defc\ult, 
I koow of no court that will not permit him to 
pay the costs, open the default, and try the case 
on its merits ; but when the great cause of hu- 
man liberty and right, when the great cause of 
the American citizen is concerned, when the 
question is, shall the American citizen have a 
voice and vote as to the Constitution under 
which he and his posterity are to live, perhaps 
forever, ah ! then he is debarred, he has no 
power to set it aside I He is foreclosed, just aa 
the people were foreclosed, because they would 
not go and vote at your Peter Funk election 
for a Convention. 

THE PLK 1 OF THE USURPERS. 

There was a default. Who was to take ad- 
vantage of their default? That would be a 
material inquiry, it strikes me. They were too 
late, says President Buchanan. Too late for 
whom ? Were they not making a Constitution 
for the people of the Territory of Kansas ? 
Who had a right to interfere ? Were they to 
lose their right by laches, if th°y committed 
laches by suffering a default? To whose ben- 
efit was it to iuure ? What tyrant is there that 
is ready, wh3n the people make default, to claim 
that meed of liberty which should have be- 



14 



\ 



longed to them ? Why, Bir, in an adversary 
suit, I understand that if a man will not take 
care of his rights, judgment will pass against 
him ; and, after all the provisions of the law 
have been complied with, he may forfeit his 
rights to Lis adversary ; but here there is no 
adversary. It i? the people themselves asking 
to make a Constitution for themselves ; and 
President Buchanan and many Senators here 
likened it to some adversary suit, in which there 
ig a party that has seme right to take advan 
tage of any want of compliance with the law. 
Is this your new fangled popular sovereignty ? 
Who is to take advantage of it ? Why, sir, it 
is as much a slave State, says the President, as 
Georgia or South Carolina. Was it to inure to 
their benefit, if the people should lose a day in 
asserting their righta? Was any olher State 
to gain what they lost ? If there ever was a 
tissue of legal nonsense dished up and sent to 
the Senate of the United States, it is such a 
message as the President has sent here. I hate 
to use harsh terms, but I have a reason for 
them. If it is new in the history of this Gov- 
ernment, the things I comment on are new. 

The people lose their own rights ; they are a 
day too l^'.e ; the tyrant has bestrode their 
necks ; the Constitution is framed ; and Mr. 
Buchanan says, ''ah, you are too late to re- 
trieve your rights ; somebody has got, hold ot 
them ; I do not know who, but you have lost 
them. You ought to have been on the alert ; 
you have lost a day, and your liberties are gone 
forever." W^hy, air, even in the good old Nor 
man days they said the dignity of a freem?.n 
was such, ib&t even their highest courts could 
cot force hira to come in under ten days. First, 
they must go to him, and invite him to come in 
like a gentleman, >ell him what the business 
was for which he was wanted, because it was 
beneath the dignity of airee citizen in England, 
at that period, to have a summons come in such 
a mandatory form that he must obey it in a 
moment. It seemed to be a mark of servitude 
that our sturdy ancestors would not submit to. 
It is not so now, however. In one day, your 
liberties may be gone. In one day, you m^ay 
become a slave, and be denied all chance ot 
liberty. 

Why do you say these men are rebels and 
traitors? You have had an army of two thou- 
sand men in Kansaa, and all the paraphernalia 
of war, for what purpose? To compel that 
people to conduct their domestic concerns in 
their own way! [Laughter.] They would no: 
do it. Did you ever hear ot so perverse a race 
aa there is in that Territory? Two thousand 
soldiers, with all the paraphernalia of war, are 
required to force a people to do just as they 
please. [Laughter.] Governor Vi/aiker wrote 
to the Picsident, ever and over again, before 
he got the hang of these men. The first per- 
sona he met in the Territory, when he got there, 
ware those busy Border Kuffians, always in 
communication with the President, who seem 



to have mesmerized him and entranced him. 
The Governor, no doubt, took letters of intro- 
duction to some of the first Border Ruffians 
in the Territory; and they seemed to have ob- 
tained their knowledge at first from that source. 
They wrote ferocious letters for about a month. 
Governor Walker, however, finally took it upon 
himself to act the missionary. He thundered 
forth his proclamation. First, he told the peo- 
ple he would enforce those Border Ruffian 
usurped laws upon them ; but he had the grace 
to say, that when the Constitution came to be 
acted upon, all of them should have a fair op- 
portunity to vote. He said, "such are my in- 
structions from the President, such is my will; 
and in that respect you shall not be thwarted." 
He went amongst the people; he found them 
uneasy about the Government which was ruling 
them. He wrote to the President, over and 
over pgain, that there was reason to fear there 
would be civil war if tyranny was persisted in, 
and that the only way he could pacify them was 
by assuring them, oa the authority of the Pres- 
ident, that they should have the right to make 
their own Constitution, in their own way. He 
said that wa3 the only pacification be could 
otfer them ; and if he had not done if, the Ter- 
ritory would have been in a blaze of war. Ha 
wrote to the President that he had told the 
people of his consultations with the President; 
he informed them that they had the faith of 
the President and the Cabinet that the Consti- 
tution would be submitted to them. The peo- 
ple there had had a little experience of Pres- 
idents and Cabinets. They said to Governor 
Walker, " these are very fine words of yours ; 
but we have been dealt with so falsely and per- 
fidiously by our Government, that we fear even 
your good faith cannot protect us ; but he gave 
such assurances as ultimately pacified them. 
A SECRET HISTORY. 
There must be some secret history connected 
with the course of the Administration in refer- 
ence to this matter, which it would be' exceed- 
ingly interesting to have unfolded. The Presi- 
dent in his inaugural had proclaimed, in the 
hearing of the whole people of the United States, 
that the people of Kansas should have a free 
and fair opportunity to vote on their own Con- 
stitution. He proclaimed that, as a matter of 
course, that must be done. He admits it in 
his last message. He acknowledges in that 
message that he made these general statements, 
but he says hia miud dwelt on the question 
of Slavery only. Well, sir, I am not a man 
who wishes to keep anything back, and I tell 
my friends here who expect to support the 
people of Kansas in their course, you cannot 
blink the question ; it is Slavery that the people 
are opposed to. I have no doubt they would 
like to express their sentiments on every part 
of the Constitution; but I candidly admit that 
if there were no Slavery in it, there would not 
be much contention about it on the other side of 
the Chamber, nor on this. Let not my frienda 



eay that it makes eo difference whether there 
is Slavery in it or not, and that the bare quea 
tion is on the aubmisBion. I agree that they 
are right in principle on that. The people 
should pass upon anything and everything con 
nected with their welfare, touching the Consti- 
tution under which they are to live; but uever- 
thelesa the Slavery queatioa ia the great maltei 
that divides us. 

Mr. President, there is something extraor- 
dinary iu the manner in which this Constitu- 
tion was submitted. V/as the like of it ever 
heard of before ? I have heard floating rumorn 
that the ingenuity of this whole District was 
invoked to invent that form of submission ; but 
I do not know how the fact was. I do not believe 
that rude Border Ruffianism had the ingenuity 
to invent these meshes of Slavery. I fear that 
the lingers of men at the other end of the 
avenue may be tainted with it. I do not know 
that; but I have shrewd surmises about it. 
How was it submitted? I will ask, first, why 
did you submit it at all ? On the other side 
of this Chamber, you claim that the Conven- 
tion was under no obligations whatever to 
the people ; that the Convention was supreme ; 
that it might do as it pleased ; that, if it did 
not submit it, the people must be content — a 
doctrine as much fraught with despotism as 
anything that can be found in the Eastern 
world. You say that a set of men called into 
a Convention can, at their will, frame aa in 
strument by which the whole people are to be 
bound, hand and foot, against their will. Why. 
air, it is an absurdity, in my judgment, alto- 
gether too palpable for argument in any pan 
of the Uciced States. 

If we hold our liberties by such a tenure ap 
that, they stand on a more fragile basis than 1 
have supposed. Why, sir, I have always sup- 
posed that everybody understood, that when a 
CDnvention was framing a Constitution, it was 
merely making a proposition to the people who 
were to be governed by it. They say to the 
people : " Will you have this ? We have done 
our best to make a Constitution which we, as 
members of this community, have believed 
would be acceptable to you. We propose, 
therefore, that you look into it, and, if it meet? 
your approbation, make it your Constitution." 
I have always supposed that that was the mean- 
ing of the action of such a Convention ; and 
certainly it is, if American liberty means any- 
thing. 

The men assembled at Lecompton dare not 
present their Constitution to this body without 
some attempt to cover it up ; they must make 
an attempt to submit it. How have they done 
it ? Why, sir, they have contrived, by ingenui 
ty, to get up a scheme whereby the form of 
voting might be preserved to the people, and 
the result be the same, let them vote as they 
would. It makes me think of a man who built 
a hog pen up in our couutry once, and the rails 
were to crooked and winding, that when his 



hogs got through, and thought they had got oat, 
as they wound alon;/ thpy came right in again. 
[Laughter.] 80 here, th*5 people were to say 
" Corislilution with Slavery," or " Con'-titution 
without Slavery." If tb<;y said " Constitution 
with Slavery," that //av« t!i» m Slavery up to 
their ears ; it nev*r could be done away with. 
If they voted " Consti'ution without Sla- 
very," what wou'd i\u uu8ophi«licat(;d man Bup- 
pose would come then ? He would nuppo'e 
he had got out of the pen ; bu'. lh» fuci is, it 
twisted him right in where he was before. He 
bad not gone an inch ; Slavery was there ; it 
was to be there ; it wan to be protected there 
forever, vote as you would. And they extorted 
an oath, before they put this nefarious fraud to 
the people, that they should support iu 

Now, sir, whoever devised this echeme, had a 
more mean and contemptible opinion of the 
American people than is consistent with Uepub- 
licanism cr Democracy. I do not believe there 
is a despot on God's earth that dare deal thus 
with his people ; and you say they are to be 
bound by puch a Peter Funk operation aa 
that I Do you suppose men are to be entrap- 
ped and deprived of their liberties in this 
way ? The only difference in the result, whether 
they voted for the Constitution with Slavery or 
without it, was, whether they would allow the 
future importation of slaves icto the State, or 
whether those now there should be kept in Sla- 
very, with their posterity, forever. It was to be 
a, slave State, and, in the language of the Pres- 
ident, a^ much a slave State as Georgia or 
South Carolina, whether the people voted that 
they would have the Constitution with Slavery, 
or whether they said they would have it without 
Slavery. Is not that a fine aspect to hold up to 
the American people, to auppote they are to be 
gulled by a such a thing as that ? 

Then they provided, in the schedule, that the 
vote should be returned to one John Calhoun, 
the President of the Convention. I deny, as a 
legal proposition, that Calhoun could political- 
ly live one moment; after the Convention had 
expired. All the incidents die with the princi- 
pal. He was defunct, and it was not in the 
power of the Convention to keep him on foot ia 
his official form one hour after that. 

But, passing by that point, we see the shrewd 
ingenuity with which it was done. This Cal- 
houn was empowered, as dictator there, to fix 
all the election districts, to appoint the judges, 
his own mere creatures and instrum-^nts, to 
make the returns, and they were to make them 
to him, and, as it is construed now, to make them 
either this year or next year, just as he pleases. 
They said the returns should be made to him 
in eight days after the eltction, but he need 
never exhibit them at all; and he has proclaim- 
ed in this city, to the honorable Senator from 
Illincio, who has stated it on this floor, that un- 
less this Constitution be adopted, he, in his 
sovereign majesty, never will make known what 
was done ! 



J 



16 



\ entrant. 



Mr. President, is it not an open, downright 1 
insult, ctiered to the American Senate, to send 
this fugiiive from justice, pmed with this tre- 
mendous power cf turning a conetitutional ma- 
iority one way or the othf.r, just as he seeq fit? 
Will the liberty-loving people of the United 
States submit to this kind of^ authority and dic- 
tation ? Who is this John C. Calhoun ? 

A Senator. He drops the *'C." 

Mr. WADE. I am glad he does so, for the 
honor of his predecessor. Who is he? We 
know nothing ahont him. The only history of 
him we have, is, that he has been indiguantly 
driven out by that people, as a violator of their 
laws, as a man so inlamous that they would not 
suffer him to live there at ali, and he has fled 
to the place where eveiyihing that is anti re 
publican and tyrannical seems to fly — he has 
sought a city oi refuge here, where everything 
too vile to live at home seems to find a place. 
Here we are wailing on John Calhoun for light 
as to who shall govern the Territory of Kan- 
sas. [" The State."] Well : the State of Kan- 
sas, when it geta to be a State. I know the 
President calls it a State now, and did it a great 
while ago. Was ever anything done like it on 
this continent before? When before was a 
man armed with authority to take the votes of 
the people cf a State, bury them up in a candle- 
box, if jou pleaae, or carry them in his pocket, 
not letting anybody be witness cf what he has 
got, and there hold them in the face of the 
whole people just, as long as he pleases, and, 
if he pleases, so forever? Sir, if you give 
sanction to frauds like this, American institu- 
tions are on their last legs, and they ought to 
be. John Calhoun, eiLiicg in some public 
house in this city, with the destinies cf a great 
State in his pocktt, and he refusing to exhibit 
the truth to the Senate of the United States, to 
to the President of the United States, to the 
House cf Representatives, or to anybody in 
terested to know anything about it! Dicta- 
tor John Cilhoun is to say who shall rule Kan- 
sas. A gentleman here said the other day, 
"Cotton is King." He was mistaken. Sir, it is 
John Calhoun who is King. 

But I do not wieh to pursue thi3 subject any 
further. I am sick of it. The honorable Sen 
ator from Sjuth Carolina [Mr. Hammoxd] said 
he had seen enough to satisfy him that these 
frauds were sickening and shameful, and he did 
not want to investigate them. It is sickening; 
it is loathing to the American mind to contem- 
plate these nefaiious frauds that are flouted in 
our faces ; and we have no means to redress 
them. Sir, we should scout them from us 
with indignation; and I hope, for the honor of 
the American name, that all these proceedings, 
so fraught with most palpable and undeniable 
fraud, will receive the stern denunciation of 
this bo^y. 

THE CONCLUSION. 

Many gentlemen who are attempting^ to 
justify the admission of this Territory into 
the Union under the Lecompton Constitution, 



say that other States have been admitted ■' 
without an enabling act. Sir, all that is 
said on this suVjectlwill not say is mere 
sophistry; but it ought to deceive ncbody. 
Perhaps more than half the new States have 
come into the Union without any enabling 
act. I do not think that such act is at all 
essential. Here are a people all homogeneous, 
all having the same interests, having no matter 
of contention between them ; _ they could get 
together, and, without any dissent, frame a 
Constitution, and ask us to admit them under 
it. The evidence must be such, always has 
been such, in every instance, that there has 
been no reason to doubt that the Constilntioa 
had the approbation of the whole people, or of 
a va9t majority. Why do you require a pop- 
ular vote on that point? Because, when there 
is dispute, it is the only means of ascertaining 
where tha majority is; but if there is no dis- 
pute, you c?in have that evidence in another 
way, and it is just as legitimate. What has 
that to do as a precedent with a case where 
civil war even is raging in regard to the Con- 
stitution th'^t is presented; where stride, con- 
ten tic n, and arms, are invoked to settle the con- 
troversy ? You are likening that to a peaceful 
gatherirg cf homogeneous people, all agreed to 
fix their i:>8titutiocs in their own way. Sir, 
there ia no parallel. One throws no light en 
the other. Th'5 people of Kansas, in three 
days, can settle this matter, if you will let them. 
You are convulsing the whole nation by the 
attempt to fcrce a Constitution on the unwill- 
ing necks of a pecple, which they abhor and 
de'test. Withdraw your force, withdraw your ^ 
coercion, say to that people, '• aseemble your- 
selves together peacefully, and de ermine what 
Constitution you choose to live under ;" and my 
word for it, sir, the hour yon do so, peace and 
tracquillity will reign throughout the whole of 
Kansas. Every man knows it. 

This contenton ia kept up for no other 
reason than to hang on the necks of that 
people this pei, institution of Slavery. In 
one hour you can make peace. Adopt the 
other course, and God only knows to what 
it will lead. I do not know what may be 
the rei3ult now; but it has never yet been 
found that by external interference, by force, or 
by fraud, ycu could coerce any set of American 
people to submit to a G :vernment they abhorred 
and detested. If they do it now, it will only 
mark the degeneracy of this age and of this 
pecple, and show that we are verging towards 
Slavery and Despotism. In my judgment, it is 
as necessary for us to rebuke and overthrow the 
frauds to which I have alluded, as anything else 
we possibly can do. If there is anything more 
dangerous to this Union than another, it is the 
immunity that is given to fraud, allowing your 
ballot-box to be invaded. Why, sir, the hour 
your ballot-box is undermined to that degree 
that the American people shall not have confi- 
dence in it, from that very hour you render free 
government impossible. 



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